LIVE
I Am Loud started in 2014 as Loud Poets, a live spoken word poetry showcase. Since then we have grown into a multidisciplinary production and entertainment company while keeping live events at the heart of our work. From monthly showcases at the Scottish Storytelling Centre to open mics, tours, and festival performances, I Am Loud showcases the best of spoken word wherever we go. Learn more about our live events below.
‘There’s a humour, poignancy and most of all confidence which serves to inspire.’
—The Scotsman
‘This is what Edinburgh has been missing: an accepting space for everyone that broadens the reach of spoken word and allows for an approachable entrance into the artform.’
— The Skinny
‘Full of life, energy and humour, the Loud Poets are making poetry for the masses’
—VoiceMag
LOUD POETS:
2025/26 SHOWCASES
This October, we’re teaming up once again with Nottingham's innovative poetry organisation Bad Betty to showcase a stellar lineup of wordsmiths.
Expect fist-thumping, heart-wrenching, side-tickling poetry performances with live musical accompaniment. The event features poets Molly Naylor, Francis-Xavier Mukiibi, Antosh Wojcik, and Agata Maslowska, hosted by Kevin Mclean with music from Jack Hinks.
Thursday 16 October, 7-9:30pm at the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
‘Loud Poets is tearing up the landscape, bringing the ancient art to contemporary audiences – spreading mirth, giggles and talent along the way.’ —Corr Blimey
LOUD POETS: OPEN MIC
The Loud Poets open mic started in February 2022 to create a space for spoken word poets to gather, share work and meet other artists.
The open mic takes place on the second and last Monday of each month from the Scottish Storytelling Centre on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The event is free and open to poets of all ages and experience levels with previous performers ranging from ages 8-80 taking to the mic!
Sign up to the open mic by filling out this Google Form.
For updates and details click here.
LOUD POETS:
ED FRINGE 2025
For over a decade we’ve been showcasing the very best of spoken word poetry at the Fringe, and this year we’re kicking it up a notch!
We’re debuting a brand-new show featuring the core Loud Poets Katie Ailes, Mark Gallie, and Kevin Mclean, with musical accompaniment from Jack Hinks and a different guest poet every night! Combining original spoken word, live music, visuals, and some tricks up our sleeves, this show rethinks what poetry can be and do. Expect a fist-thumping, pint-drinking, side-tickling, heart-wrenching spectacle that will thrill poetry lovers and turn sceptics into fans. Let’s get LOUD!
8:30-9:45pm August 1, 8, 14, and 21 at the Scottish Storytelling Centre (venue 30). Tickets £16/14.
‘The most reliably entertaining spoken word show at the Fringe’ (TheWeeReview.com)
'A kaleidoscope of spoken word' ★★★★★ (EdFringeReview.com)
LOUD POETS:
BEST OF FRINGE 2024
In 2024, we celebrated our 10th year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe by showcasing the top spoken word talent of the festival at the Scottish Storytelling Centre!
Each show featured a unique line-up and Loud Poets’ classic fist-thumping, pint-drinking, side-tickling, heart-wrenching style of spoken word. This is poetry for the masses!
Our 2024 Best of Fringe show featured RJ Hunter, Thabo, Katie Ailes, Mark Gallie, Dean Tsang, Bex Bidgood, Mark Grist, Gigi Bella, James Stedman, Jenny Foulds, Ben Macpherson, Beth Macdonald, Dan Webber, Georgie Wedge, and Jonathan Kinsman.
Videos from our 2024 Loud Poets: Best of Fringe show are live now on our YouTube channel!
‘Poetry is not often seen as being the ‘best of fringe’, but at least for me, that changes now.’ — Entertainment Now
LOUD POETS & PORTY PRIDE:
SPEAK UP
In June 2024 we teamed up the wonderful folks at Porty Pride for Speak Up: A night of poetry celebrating the LGBTQ+ community!
On the grand Portobello Town Hall stage we featured Rachel Amey, Nasim Rebecca Asl, Gray Crosbie, and Themo H Peel, plus eight excellent open mic performers. Bex Bidgood hosted, and Yvonne Waddell and Jackie McDonald provided BSL interpretation for the feature performers.
Founded in 2021, Porty Pride is Portobello’s annual community-organised, grassroots Pride celebration. It aims to provide a safe, intergenerational, celebratory and educational Pride weekend for the whole LGBTQ+ community and its allies in a respectful environment.
TINDERBOX & LOUD POETS:
OUTWITH WORDS
‘Outwith Words' is the culmination of a 10-week collaboration between an expanded 45 piece Tinderbox Orchestra, Loud Poets and featured artists Hannah McCooke, RJ Hunter, and ACE V!S!ON.
After a thunderously successful event at Central Hall in March 2024, Loud Poets and the Tinderbox Orchestra partnered again for a 9-show Edinburgh Festival Fringe run of ‘Outwith Words’ in August 2024.
Tinderbox Orchestra produces mesmerising and unforgettable live shows featuring some of Scotland’s most talented young musicians across genres and an international cast of professional collaborators. Bringing together rappers & singers with soaring strings, heavy brass, woodwind and a thundering back-line, they have transformed preconceptions of what an orchestra can be.
LOUD POETS PRESENTS:
SPEAK UP!
An Evening of Poetry Celebrating International Women’s Day
Scottish Storytelling Centre
7.30pm, Thursday 7th March 2024
We celebrated International Women’s Day with a dazzling evening of poetry celebrating the diversity of women’s experiences, in support of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. Featuring a stellar lineup including RJ Hunter, Alice Tarbuck, Georgia Bartlett-McNeil, JL Williams, Elaine Gallagher and Jj Fadaka - plus an open mic! Co-hosted by Katie Ailes and Annie Rutherford.
This event proudly celebrated all women, including trans and intersex women, and people of all genders were warmly invited to attend. The open mic section centred the experiences of women and Loud Poets invited women, non-binary and gender-fluid people who are comfortable in that space to perform.